By IANS
Jammu : National Conference president Omar Abdullah has accused ruling coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of plotting to trifurcate Jammu and Kashmir on regional and religious lines.
Asserting that his party's demand for autonomy could alone satisfy the people of the state and keep it united, Abdullah lashed out at the PDP assertion that regional aspirations could be met only through three regional assemblies for each of the three regions of the state – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
"This is a plot to divide the state on the religious lines and arouse communal passions," Abdullah, who is currently touring the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, told a public meeting in Behrote.
Arguing that his party's self-rule formula would give all regions political empowerment, PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had proposed an assembly for each of the three regions – Buddhist dominated Ladakh, Muslim majority Kashmir Valley and Hindu-dominant Jammu region. PDP is the partner in the ruling coalition led by Congress.
But the National Conference, PDP's main political rival, sees in this "a plot to cause disintegration of the state".
"This is nothing but a recipe to divide the people on the regional and religious basis. And it is a poisonous formula," Abdullah has said in his public meetings.
The National Conference government in June 2000 had brought out an 'autonomy report', envisaging semi-sovereign status for Jammu and Kashmir and full control over all affairs barring defence, foreign affairs and communications. The report was rejected by the then National Democratic Alliance government in New Delhi.
It was revived for discussions at a meeting of the centre-state relations working group. The working group – one of the five constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Srinagar in May last year – is yet to finalise its report.